British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol as part of his brief stop in Washington. Johnson met earlier in the day with U.S. senators.
Johson met Tuesday with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House as part of a brief stop in Washington on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York.
During a photo opportunity with reporters, Pelosi remarked that she had met with Johnson last week when she was in London for the G-7 summit of parliamentary leaders. She credited the British leader for hosting the upcoming climate summit in Glasglow, Scotland, November 1-12 and said they intended to discuss joint efforts on fighting terrorism and ending the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johnson told reporters it was very important for him to go to Pelosi's office, because all his life, he felt the United States and Capitol Hill stood for all the ideals of democracy and "the principle that the people should choose their government, and the people alone should choose their government." He told Pelosi the U.S. can count on his support and the support of Britain in upholding that principle.
During her visit to London last week, Pelosi indicated that nullifying the Northern Ireland peace agreement — known as the Good Friday Accords — would likely undermine negotiations for a post-Brexit bilateral trade agreement with the United States.
Johnson's government is seeking to at least renegotiate part of the agreement. The two leaders made no public mention of that potential disagreement.
Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
